Gate-all-around (GAA) nanowire field effect transistors having small nanowire diameters are among the CMOS transistor architectures having advantageous device characteristics. For sub-10 nm gate lengths, replacement gate (RMG) processes can be challenging due to the small available volume and gate resistance constraints. The handling of nanowires in the source/drain regions after spacer reactive ion etch (RIE) and cleaning the spacer under the wires in a stacked nanowire architecture is difficult. Methods have been proposed to chop the nanowires and regrow epitaxially from the nanowire corners. For sub-4 nm nanowire dimensions, source/drain epitaxial growth and merging the nanowires is difficult, particularly for pFET devices, due to the small available surface areas and facet issues.